Sega Announces new 2D Sonic title

[Rökkan]

how are you guys forgetting that dash pads were in both sonic 2 and 3

Sonic 2 only had a booster thing in Chemical Plant and that's it. It had also a plate thing that brought you forward in Wing Fortress, but it does not work anything like a dashpad.

Sonic 3 had also something in Hydrocity, but it didn't work like a dashpad, since you had to stop and let it spin you to finally boost you forward. Flying Battery and Death Egg had the same thing in Wing Fortress that's not a dashpad.

And for the note, Sonic CD had something that boosted you forward in Stardust Speedway, but only worked if you were running at a certain speed.

Oh I'm sorry. Because I was under the impression that Sonic was meant to be going fast, and booster pads in conjunction with jumping puzzles was both fun to play and cool to watch. Oh sure I can spent the majority of the level spindashing around instead, but that's not actually fun or anything.

What I don't get is why you can't just let it go and ignore the game like you most likely ignored the 3D games prior to this one, and not get mad over silly unimportant shit. Meanwhile I'll enjoy a 2D Sonic game that keeps in some of the mechanics and stage features I like. Ho hum.

That's the problem with Iizuka's level design.

Sonic is to be played, not to watch.

I don't want to watch Sonic run from a killer whale, I want to PLAY as Sonic running from a killer whale. I want to be able to go back and forth as I damn well please, and not have a fuckton of dashpads keeping me from going back, and when I finally get to backtrack, I die in a pit because that's not what the level designer intended? And thus I end up finding a bug, or die for silly reasons because I was not following what it was EXACTLY supposed to be followed by the level designer? Iizuka's level design is a roller coaster, you have just one track, you cannot backtrack, there are no tracks to switch to, you just have to go forward and watch you go through loops or other "radical" features that you don't have any control on, but just watch.

Classic Sonic didn't have this. You could go back to grab an item you forgot, you could try bumping into walls to find special paths and shortcuts, actually, the level design incentivated that. You could just jump off the looping or of a corkscrew without having to die in a pit or find a bug, because the level designers actually let the player do that.
And also, if you're spindashing a lot, that means you're not a very good player. Once you build up momentum, be it from a spin-dash, or a loop, you have to work your way to keep with that speed during the level, and if you don't, you will have to spin-dash to try gaining it again. Plus, every single level can be beaten without the use of Spin-Dash, (until Sonic 3, but Spin-Dash was only needed for minor things like the "wheel switch" on Marble Garden and the "wheel platform rail" on Lava Reef.) and if you don't have enough speed because you performed a break during a series of loopings or a diagonal fall, or a high-speed section like that, you won't fall into a pit, you won't have to restart the level, or find a glitch. You'll just access another path. It might be a slower path, or a path with more enemies, with less items, or with a tricky platforming section, but it will be an alternative path.

To illustrate better the difference of the level design then and now, I'll use an example my friend used with me: Think of City Escape from SA2. Remember that there are lots of streets that crossed with each other? Now, wouldn't it be interesting if you actually could go to those other streets for alternative paths instead of being unable of exploring those areas because of invisible walls?

And I never ignored a single Sonic game. The only one I did was Sonic Rush because I thought it was just going to be exactly like the Advances and there wasn't going to be anything special or different about it. But then, one year after its launch, I saw a trailer of it and got extremely excited. Bought it and I'm not regretful about it, it's a pretty good game.

I'm really disappointed that it's just about re-using classic gameplay (not even that they're doing it exactly) and not about going classic again, because classic Sonic had an incredible atmosphere and charm, and, even though when I first saw the Adventure's design and artwork I thought that was the coolest and edgiest shit ever, nowadays, modern Sonic is just tiresome and stupid. If I had just one single game with classic Sonic again I'd be very happy, but doing a Sonic the Hedgehog 4, with more elements from modern Sonic than classic Sonic? This is a powerful kick in the nuts. Still, if they can pull off the same level design and game concept of the classics, I'll probably buy this and like it. But so far, this game is not something that I'm optimistic about.